Abdulrahman Gomasheni was born in 1917 in the village of Goptepe, affiliated with the Shorsh sub-district in the Koya district of Erbil province. Before going to the Soviet Union, he had two wives; his first wife was named Jawahir Muhyiddin and his second wife was named Naila Hama Rasul. He had four sons named Zyad, Zagros, Baga, and Awa. Abdulrahman studied in the Soviet Union and received a diploma from the institute in the forestry department. In the Soviet Union, he married Kafiya, and they had two daughters named Raya (1954) and Vera (1957). After returning from the Soviet Union, in 1959, he was employed as an agricultural supervisor at the Kalak Forestry Department, and in 1960, he was transferred to the Koya Forestry Department. After the collapse of the Aylul Revolution, in 1978, he returned to the city of Koya from Nasiriyah. That same year, he returned to his profession and was made a training officer. He knew both Kurdish and Russian languages. He passed away on July 22, 1979, in Koya and was buried in the Gomashen cemetery.
Struggle RecordIn 1943, Abdulrahman Gomasheni joined the ranks of the Second Barzan Revolution. On August 8, 1945, he participated in the capture of the Mergasor police station. On August 19, 1945, by order of the Iraqi military tribunal, all his movable and immovable property was seized.
After the collapse of the Second Barzan Revolution, on October 11, 1945, he headed to Eastern Kurdistan. On March 31, 1946, he became a Peshmerga in the Barzani force affiliated with the army of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad. On April 29, 1946, he participated in the Battle of Qarawa in the Saqqez region. After the collapse of the Republic of Kurdistan, on March 19, 1947, he participated in the battles of Naqada and Oshnavieh.
He was among the Peshmerga who, on April 19, 1947, returned to the Shirwan and Mizuri region through the Khwakurk road and the Barazgir plain via the territory of Northern Kurdistan.
After their return, General Mustafa Barzani held a meeting with his companions on May 15, 1947, in the village of Argosh and gave them the choice to stay or head toward the Soviet Union. There, all his companions decided to continue and head toward the Soviet Union. On May 23, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani toward the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of the Qotur Valley and the Battle of the Maku Bridge. After much hardship and fatigue, on June 18, 1947, he crossed the Aras River, which lies on the border between Iran and the Soviet Union, into the Soviet Union.
After arriving in the Soviet Union, on June 19, 1947, along with all his companions, he was placed in the city of Nakhchivan in the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days in an open-air compound surrounded by barbed wire. They were guarded by a group of soldiers and were treated as prisoners of war in terms of food, clothing, and movement. Later, by the decision of the Soviet government, they were distributed among the regions of Aghdam, Lachin, Ayolakh, and Kalbajar in the Republic of Azerbaijan. On December 10, 1947, they were transferred to a military camp on the Caspian Sea in Baku, the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and on the 23rd of the same month, they were given military uniforms and, under the supervision of officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, they were taught Kurdish language lessons daily for four hours by some of their companions who were literate.
After the poor treatment of his companions by Jafar Bagirov, it was decided to move the military camp on August 29, 1948, from the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Charchuk compound near Tashkent, the capital of the Republic of Uzbekistan, where they continued their military training.
In March 1949, along with his companions, they were distributed in groups and squads by train among the collective villages of the Soviet Union and worked on the collective farms (kolkhozes) (lands that people rented from the government and later gave the government's share back).
After much effort and sending several letters by General Mustafa Barzani to Stalin, a letter finally reached Stalin in which Barzani described the hardships of his companions, and he immediately ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the situation of Barzani's companions. Eventually, the committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vrevsky, so he went to the city of Vrevsky in the Soviet Union in November 1951.
After the July 14, 1958 revolution in Iraq and the return of General Mustafa Barzani, on February 25, 1959, according to both the third and seventh articles and paragraph (a) of the tenth article, and by applying the eleventh article based on the amended Law No. 19 of 1959, he and his companions were granted a general amnesty.
In 1958, the republican government in Iraq was established under the presidency of Abdul Karim Qasim. On April 16, 1959, along with his companions, he returned to Kurdistan via the port of Basra in the south of the Republic of Iraq on the ship Gruzia.
In 1960, he was a representative at the Fifth Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and was later made an administrator of the Koya regional committee and was head of military organization. For 6 months, he was deputy commander of the 3rd Battalion and was head of the military department. In 1961, he participated in the Aylul Revolution. He participated in the battles of Jaldian, the battles of Bawaji, Zozk, Qopchi, and Koresi. In 1975, after the collapse of the Aylul Revolution, he headed to Iran as a refugee. In 1978, he returned to Kurdistan. Later, for one month, he was forcibly displaced by the Iraqi government to southern Iraq and was settled in the city of Nasiriyah.
Sources:1- Haidar Faruq al-Samarrai, Zia Jafar and his Political and Economic Role in Iraq, (London – Dar al-Hikma - 2016).
2- Shaban Ali Shaban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Printing House - 2013).
3-Abdulrahman Mela Habib Abubakr, The Barzan Tribe between 1931 - 1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Press - 2001 AD), pp. 121, 126-127.
4-Abdullah Ghafoor, Geographical Dictionary of Erbil, (Erbil - Kurdish Academy Publications - Haji Hashim Press - 2015 AD).
5-Karwan Muhammad Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviet Union, First Edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Press - 2011 AD).
6-From the memoir of the martyr commander Haso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani, The Barzanis' Journey to the Soviet Union, First Edition (Erbil - Rewshanbiri Press - 1997 AD).
7-Laith Abdul-Muhsin Jawad Al-Zubaidi, The Revolution of 14 July 1958 in Iraq, (Baghdad - Dar Al-Rashid for Publishing - 1979 AD).
8-Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931 - 1958, (Duhok - Khabat Press - 1998 AD).
9-Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.